Monday, July 01, 2013

Change We Shouldn't Believe In

Robin R. Ford describes herself in
Salon as "an educated African-American woman" whose "parents grew up in
the South." She would like to sit down with Paula Deen and talk to
her about race, though she "can't bring myself to dislike her" and
states "I forgive her."

I
don't much care whether Ford is able to arrange her meeting because,
like her, I find Deen's failure to grasp reality far less important than
Chief Justice Roberts' unwillingness to acknowledge it. In his
politically brilliant decision (text, here)
striking down chapter of the Voting Rights Act- rendering the
legislation impotent while avoiding eliminating the entire law- Roberts
imagined a country that never has been. "Today the nation," the Chief
Justice intoned, "is no longer divided along those lines, yet the Voting
Rights Act continues to treat it as if it were." Ford notes

Just
because a biracial man who appears more black than white was elected
president doesn’t make discrimination based on color a problem of the
past. If race were no longer an issue in this country then young black
men wouldn’t make up the vast majority of those incarcerated. And
minorities wouldn’t have lower test scores because of unfairly funded
schools, and poverty would not affect minorities disproportionately. And
no one would contest the president’s heritage.

The
fact of the matter is, race still matters. It is a constant fact of
life in this country whether we want to admit it or not. It would be
nice to feel like Obama’s election and resounding reelection signaled
the end to racism in America, but I fear that it just made those who
have hatred in their hearts that much more determined to keep minorities
“in their place.” The fear of losing control of the country to
minorities has actually pushed many out of the racist closet. The
country is as divided by race as it has ever been. The difference now is
that people don’t speak in public what they are thinking and sharing
behind closed doors. The difference is that now there are laws that
protect minorities from overt discrimination, legislation like the
Voting Rights Act, which has protected every citizens’ access to voting
since 1965.

It seems such a long time ago, but it was less than five years ago that Adam Nagourney expressed in The New York Times the
sentiment of centrist and conservative Americans and, especially, the
mainstream media when he characterized the election of Barack Obama as
"a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation's fraught
racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just
two years ago."

On
that election night when the naive held sway, the victor boasted "If
there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where
all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders
is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer." And his vanquished opponent, the Arizona
senator, believed "This is a historic election, and I recognize the
significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that
must be theirs tonight. We both realize that we have come a long way
from the injustices that once stained our nation’s reputation."

Well,
yes, the injustice of slavery has been abolished. Even Paula Deen,
John Roberts, and (probably) Clarence Thomas are glad about that. But
Bill Maher, who boldly continues to be politically correct, put it well
(video, below) on Friday night when he observed

I
found it very fun, funny- or maybe not funny. I watched John Roberts
say "This country has changed- racism not a big deal anymore. That's
why we got rid of the voting rights act. Then two days later I watched
this woman on the Trayvon Martin trial, Rachel Jeantel, talking to the
white white lawyer and they literally could not understand each other.
And I thought these Supreme Court dudes- they don't live in the real
world; they don't know how much the country has changed.

At
one point he said "Did you call the police" and she was like "you know
what? people like me don't call the police. We try to avoid the
police."

Perhaps
Maher and some others would attribute all this to racism, which would
be an oversimplification akin to thinking that the election of a black
(actually, mixed-race) man over a guy representing a party understood to
have mauled the nation signified the upheaval of the old order. The
election of Barack Obama did not prove "all things are possible," with
inequality and social immobility continuing to grow in the U.S.A. Nor
was it a realization of "the dream of our founders" or curtail the
injustices of the military-corporate complex. It was merely an
election which changed little,
as Chief Justice John Roberts demonstrated last week when he moved to
make it more difficult for the poor, the elderly, minorities, and others
less privileged to exercise the franchise.